Monday, October 08, 2007

Blake's battle / more

"This morning I shared with my teammates news that I was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia," Jason Blake said on the team's website. "It is highly-treatable, and I have begun taking a pill on a daily basis that has proven to be very effective in controlling this cancer. The prognosis, and certainly the expectations of my physician, myself and my family, is that I will live a long, full and normal life. This situation will not impact my ability to live my life as I otherwise would, and will not affect my ability to perform at my highest level for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm looking forward to my first season with the Leafs and helping our club compete for the Stanley Cup."

Hopefully, Blake fully recovers from this disease.From a professional standpoint, Blake is in a bit of a dilemna. During preseason, Blake looked to click with Sundin on the top line, but in Toronto's game on Sunday, Ponikarovsky and Antropov rejoined Sundin on the top line and showed instant chemistry. Blake needs to find a good fit in T.O. and earn his $4 million per season salary. In time he just might. It's too bad Wellwood is injured. I'd like to see those 2 play together, with Wellwood as the great setup guy to the sniper Blake.

TSN is also reporting that the waiving of Freddy Meyer by the Islanders may have been done to clear way for Bryan Berard to play on Long Island. We'll see. He was there on a try-out basis already. Meyer will make a decent depth addition to Phoenix. But they need more offence don't they? Meyer showed alot of offensive flair in 2005-06 with the Flyers, scoring 6 goals and 27 points on 57 games, but has fallen dramatically since.

It was great to watch Mike Keenan on HNIC's After Hours on Saturday night. Mike had to settle down a bit after the Canucks had just beat Calgary's sorry asses. But when he did, you could see the friendly fun side of him. A music buff. Loves to sing on stage. You know, just to shed a bit of that "Iron Mike" perspective that we have of him. I always did appreciate the honest side of the guy. He pulls no punches.Keenan does have a way of getting the best out of some players and the worst in others. It appears that Daymond Langkow is already reaping the rewards, scoring 4 goals in 2 games. It's early. But you know that Langkow, Iginla, Huselius, and Tanguay are going to get a ton of icetime under Keenan, who loves to shorten his bench whenever necessary.Now, is Keenan going to get the Flames to win on the road this year, or how about win at all?? The Flames still don't look like they have established the obvious lacking identity of a winning team.